,1 

-9 8r 



/ 



/" 



E 467 
.1 
.L9 B8 

Copy 1 ORATION 



HON. B. GRATZ BROWN 



THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OE MISSOURI, 



INAUGURATION OF THE LYON MONUMENT ASSOCIATION, 



JEFFERSON CITY, MISSOURI, JANUARY 11, 1866. 



CITY OF WASHINOTON: 
1866. 






61503 
Ji 






ORATION 



Ladies and Gentlemen : 

I bid you welcome on this auspicious time. 
Free Missouri has chosen the first anniversary 
of her own emancipation ordinance as the day 
most appropriate for doing reverence to the 
name of Nathaniel Lyon. It is proposed that 
her representative men here assembled shall 
institute an association, having for its object 
the erection of some suitable monument to re- 
cord his services, and the adoption of such 
measures of fraternity and celebration as may 
serve to keep his memory green. When we 
realize how signal were those services, and how 
sacred is that remembrance, no one can feel as- 
tonished that such a purpose should have drawn 
forth so large an audience, from all sections of 
our State, to participate in its ceremonies. 

Invited by those charged with making prepa- 
ration for this occasion, to be present and con- 
tribute to its expi-ession, I shall humbly en- 
deavor to perform the duty assigned me by 
such a review of the life and character of him 
whom it is intended to honor as shall assist in 
recalling more vividty some scenes that illus- 
trated his career, and developing more clearly 
some elements that ennobled his soul. I shall 
labor to be brief. Others whom I see around me, 
distinguished leaders in arms as in eloquence, 
will contribute such adornment of speech and 
fervor of thought — such emotional persuasion — 
as I may not hope to attain. 

Brigadier General Nathaniel Lyon was born 
at Ashford, Wyndham county, Connecticut, 
July 14, 1819. Reared in the modest and manly 



ways of New England life, characterized in 
youth by a fondness for mathematics, indicat- 
ing force as well as precision of thought, ani- 
mated by the example of an ancestor who sig- 
nalized his courage at Bunker Hill and fell 
fighting at the head of his regiment in the battle 
of Harlem Plains, he found a congenial sphere 
in the profession of arms. In his eighteenth 
year he entered the Military Academy at West 
Point, and gradftated with distinction in 1841. 
Appointed to a lieutenancy in the second in- 
fantry, his first service was in Florida, during 
the latter part of the Seminole war. In 1847 
he was promoted first lieutenant, and the adjust- 
ment of difficulties with Great Britain concern- 
ing the boundary question having released his 
regiment, stationed in Oregon, he was, soon 
after the commencement of hostilities with Mex- 
ico, ordered into active service. He joined Gen- 
eral Taylor before Monterey, but subsequently 
was transferred and placed under the command 
of General Scott. During the battles which en- 
sued he served with distinction at Vera Cruz, 
Cerro Gordo, Contreras, Churubusco, and " for 
meritorious conduct" received the brevet rank 
of captain. It was at the taking of the city of 
Mexico by our forces that he first shed his blood 
for the honor of the flag, being wounded by a 
musket ball while fighting bravely at the Belen 
gate. 

On the 11th of June, 1851, he received the 
rank of full captain, and was ordered to Jef- 
ferson Barracks, preparatory to being sent to 
California for service against the Indian tribes. 



/ 



Upon that duty he remained some years. When 
civil war, however, became imminent on our 
western border, owing to the conflict of freedom 
and slavery for the possession of the soil, he was 
ordered back from the Pacific and stationed 
with his company at Fort Riley, in Kansas Ter- 
ritory. As a military man he was there em- 
ployed in a work of repression and maintain- 
ing order that tasked his patience and humanity 
to the utmost. It is, perhaps, not going too 
far to say that rigid methods of discipline had 
done much to impair the elasticity and inde- 
pendence of his mind, and the aversion to dis- 
order to which ho had been educated was well 
t-alculated to degenerate into a blind execution 
of the tyrannies of control. But in this instance 
a native vigor rescued him from the depressing 
influence. While prompt, therefore, to obey, 
and firm in the enforcement of law, he yet sym- 
pathized warmly with those who were resolute 
to defend the cause of liberty against all op- 
posers, and it is perhaps the highest encomium 
that can be pronounced upon his liearing to say 
that he won no less the esteem of the Army as 
a most brave and capable officer, than the love 
and confidence of the people to whom he was 
so often and offensively opposed. It wa^upou 
the strength of the reputation thus achieved, 
that in 1801, when rebellion, under the cloak 
of State sovereignty, undertook to defy the Fed- 
oral Government, the President, solicitous to 
sustain those who vj^ere laboring to prevent 
Missouri from joining the movement of seces- 
sion, assigned him to what at that time was 
the most important command in the valley of 
the Mississippi — the arsenal at St. Louis. The 
incipient step of treason throughout the South 
had been to seize upon the military depots of 
the United States, which, under the manage- 
ment of the Secretary of War, Mr. Floyd, 
had been well supplied with material iu antici- 
pation of their surrender. And it is beyond 
question that the same sinister policy had pre- 
vailed in regard to the arsenal at St. Louis. 
There were stored all the arms and munitions 
upon which the Government could rely for 
t'quipping the five great States of the Northwest. 
It was a prize that would be eagerly grasped 
by the authorities in Missouri, who were known 
to be hostile to the United States, and it was 
never doubted that it would require all the en- 



ergy and devotion of its commander to maintain 
possession against the forces.that were heralded 
as accumulating for its capture. Soon after 
his arrival he was advised by those whose soli- 
citude had made them cognizant of all that was 
transpiring, that an officer on duty with him 
was unreliable, and had expressed himself ready 
to facilitate the entry of State troops. His reply 
was, "If he found the officer in question taking 
any step to throw the post into the hands of the 
enemy, he would throw him into the Missis- 
sippi river. ' ' And the same directness pervaded 
all his action. But these are matters on whicli 
I need not dwell. How nobly he achieved the 
purpose intrusted to him ; how through days 
and nights of anxiety he sentineled the ramparts 
with his little baud, with what matchless skill 
he organized loyalty into armed battalions and 
occupied the city by an improvised garrison, 
and with what precision and power and method 
and nerve he struck the blow at the moment 
when treason was congregating into camp for 
attack — all these are blazoned as memorable 
inscriptions upon the flag of your patriotism. 
It will be sufficient to say that then it was tlie 
name and fame of Nathaniel Lyon became first 
commingled in time and wedded in eternity 
with the heroic struggle that has culminated in 
dedicating Missouri to equal rights and human 
freedom. 

The military administration of General Lyon 
in this State, covering a period of little more 
than ninety days, was signalized not only by great 
vigor of preparation, but also by a large fore- 
cast of the magnitude and bearings of the war 
which was to ensue. Perhaps, however, that 
which more than all else will challenge the ad- 
miration of posterity in his conduct at this criti- 
cal conjuncture was the boldness and unhesi- 
tating decision witli which he took the initiative. 
While statesmen trembled and Cabinets prevar- 
icated, while a republican Congress was deny- 
ing its creed before a few remaining southern 
representatives, while the Government itself, 
after permitting a garrison at Fort Sumter to be 
sacrificed, was still cogitating expedients to hide 
the fact of war, he, a simple captain of infantry, 
with more of bravery than them all, with a cour- 
age that was genius, determined to assume re- 
sponsibility and maintain at all hazards the su- 
premacy of the L^nited States iu so much of its 



territory as was intrusted to his keeping. In 
thus initiating hostilities he realized that it 
would be made the occasioii of violent and in- 
flammatory appeals to precipitate public opin- 
ion against the Federal Government ; but he had 
also determined that his own movements should 
be so rapid, and his concentrations of force at 
important points so imposing, as to develop all 
there was of Union sentiment among the peo- 
ple, and preclude disloyal elements from effect- 
ing any organization. And it was with this view 
that he contemplated following up promptly the 
capture of Camp Jackson by the occupation of 
this capital, the arrest or dispersion of the Legis- 
lature then in session here, and the capture of 
those State officers who were inciting the peo- 
ple to rebellion. 

The facility of such movement was not doubted, 
and it was perhaps the anticipated arrival of a 
superior officer rather than any question of pol- 
icy that deferred its execution. This arrival 
and assumption of command by General Har- 
ney transpired fr\vo days afterward, and was in 
every sense unfortunate, inasmuch as his rec- 
ognition of the situation was sadly deficient in 
clearness, while he was endeared b}" no ties of 
sympathy with the loyal people of the State. 
The result was immediate paralysis of military 
preparation. Volunteer enlistments were dis- 
couraged, the ardor of patriotism was chilled, 
consternation rapidly supplanted confidence on 
all sides. This was still further increased when 
it was known that General Harney had entered 
into an agreement by "which the movement of 
Federal troops was to be stopped, the main- 
tenance of order intrusted to General Ster- 
ling Price, and the Union men of the interior 
left without defense. That was a virtual sur- 
render of the State to disloyal control. Ad- 
vised of the efiTect produced, however, the United 
States Government hastened to correct the mis- 
take it had committed, and the recall of Gen- 
eral Harney and the promotion of General Lyon 
enabled the latter to act again with celerity and 
resolution. He at once prepared for occupying 
the State permanently in its strategic points. 
Having already dislodged the rebels who had 
begun to congregate in the southwest, by a swift 
movement of troops upon Potosi, and armed 
loyal companies in several of the most reliable 
counties, north as well as south of the Missouri 



river, he ordered Colonel Curtis to occupy the 
line of the Hannibal and St. Joseph railroad 
strongly, and putting down traitors everywhere, 
to move with a detachment upon Lexington. 
He then gathered his whole disposable force 
together, and impressing a large flotilla of ves- 
sels, steamed at once to Jefl'erson City. His 
entry here was made on the 11th of June, 18G1, 
the day following the departure of Governor 
Jackson and his staff. 

General Lyon, remaining only long enough 
to give military organization to the place, and 
leaving a small garrison, hurried forward to 
Boonville, where in a brief but spirited engage- 
ment he scattered the hastil}' levied rebel forces 
that had concentrated to resist him. Many 
were made prisoners and paroled, many came 
in for clemency after the battle, a few were killed 
and wounded. The leaders mostly escaping, 
fled in the direction of Arkansas. Prior to 
leaving St. Louis General Lyon had dispatched 
a column under Colonel Sigel to occupy Spring- 
field and disperse any hostile bands gathering 
in that quarter. The whole plan of operations 
as projected contemplated not only reenforcing 
this column directly from its base, but estab- 
lishing a cordon of posts across the southern 
part of the State, at Franklin, Rolla, Waynes- 
ville, Lebanon, and Carthage, that would render 
safe its communication. Contemporaneously 
it was General Lyon' s intention to march south- 
wardly from Boonville to Springfield with the 
troops under him, and thus uniting all his forces 
into a mobile army, to hold that point as a key 
to the defense of the State, not less against in- 
vasion from without than rebellion from within. 
It is remarkable that the outline of the cam- 
paign thus rapidly improvised by General Lyon, 
in the very outset of our civil conflict, should 
have been demonstrated by the whole course . 
of the war — by our disasters not less than our 
victories — to be that in which alone there was 
safety, both for offense and defense. Indeed, 
it was the only plan compatible with the reten- 
tion of the State under Federal control. 

Some delays in procuring transportation ; 
some needless dispersion of troops in the ex- 
treme Southwest ; some want of energy in send- 
ing forward men and munitions from Rolla, 
embarrassed his concentration at Springfield ; 
but his own arrival at that point on the 15th of 



* 



6 



July, preceded by the return of detacliments 
under Sigel and Sweeney a few days previous, 
enabled him to make a very formidable front. 
It was true that the enemy against whom he 
was antagonized might aggregate a much larger 
force than any he could hold in hand, and that 
there would be no lack of resolution in their 
ranks or skill in their leaders ; but he calcu- 
lated very greatly on his own superior arma- 
ment and the admirable discipline of a large 
part of his command. The result demonstrated 
that in this respect his confidence was fully war- 
ranted. The steadiness displayed by the vol- 
/ unteer soldiery of Missouri, Iowa, and Kansas, 
when first brought under fire, was in no respect 
inferior to that of troops in the regular Army 
stationed by their side. Indeed, it is but a just 
tribute to our citizen levies, who have stood 
forth so promptly and multitudinously during 
the five long years of warfare, to say that if a 
fault may be charged upon them when com- 
pared with veterans, it is that they are too im- 
petuous in their valor properly to realize dan- 
ger when it confronts them. 

It was in those eventful August days of 1861, 
when the fair rolling lands of the Southwest 
were first pressed by the foot of the invader, 
when the rebel levies under Price were aug- 
mented by those of Arkansas under McCullough, 
that General Lyon prepared for the impending 
battle — a battle destined to be decisive of so 
much in the history of our State. I shall not 
dwell upon all the incidents and movements 
designed to develop the strength and position 
of the enemy, or the plans first projected, after- 
ward laid aside, for encountering the hostile 
forces. There was no discouragement among 
our troops, but rather an exalted confidence in 
their general. The rebels were likewise con- 
fident in their strength. Day after day increas- 
ing in numbers, and moving steadily forward, 
they encamped on the 9th of August along the 
ravines of Wilson's creek, some ten miles south 
of Springfield. It was here that General Lyon 
determined to attack them; and in doing so to 
strike them simultaneously in front and in the 
flank or rear. For this purpose, after retain- 
ing to himself some three thousand seven hun- 
dred men, and ten pieces of artilleiy for an 
attack along the ^fount Vernon road, he in- 
trusted Colonel Sigel with sixteen hundred men 



and six guns for an assault al(»ng the Fayette- 
ville road. 

This division of his small army has been much 
criticized in military circles, as involving too 
great risk under the peculiar circumstances. 
Perhaps the criticism is just ; and yet it may be 
affirmed confidently that had the projected di- 
version been pressed with a success and main- 
tained with a fortitude equal to his own direct 
onset, the result would have given us a complete 
victory at an early hour in the day. Again, it 
ha,s been maintained by many, that in Jhe dis- 
proportion of his forces to those of tl»e enemy, 
in the absence of any intrenched position of 
strength or secure line (ff communication with 
his base at Rolla or Jefferson City, he should 
not have hazarded a battle at all, but, taken 
advantage of a rapid retreat to evacuate the 
S outhwest and select som e other line for defense. 
This was known to be the opinion of some of 
the ofiicers consulted by General Lyon, and to 
their reasoning he was at first inclined to defer, 
although it was in conflict with all his military 
instinct. But further reflection and conference 
induced him to repose upon his own primary 
judgment, and attack the enemy in his camp. 
And in this I think he was right. A careful 
examination of all the facts elicited since the 
battle demonstrates that he derived from his 
initiative all the benefit he anticipated — that the 
enemy were taken at a great disadvantage and 
thrown into a confusion from which they did 
not recover for hours ; and that, up to the very 
moment of retiring, even with a dismembered 
army, our troops maintained a victorious posi- 
tion. Besides, there were considerations of a 
general character that could not be disregarded 
inamatterofso muchmoment. Retreatwithout 
a battle would be to surrender the State to the 
enemy; for, in the face of such abandonment, 
loyal counties could not be asked to declare for 
the Government, while the impulse given to the 
cause of treason would force all the unprotected 
into its ranks. Besides, none knew better than 
he, that the outcome of a revolution, such as that 
which unfolded before him, was to be measured 
by beliefs and the constancy of whole peoples 
rather than by battles, whether lost or won. 
He did well and wisely, therefore, to make his 
stand at the front and not at the rear. Nay, 
he did more ; for the valor of his army, the 



glory of his bright example, the knowledge thus 
early made manifest that there was a lion in 
the path of treason, exerted an untold influence 
in strengthening the loyal cause throughout all 
the nation. 

It is not my purpose to-day fo trace minutely 
the incidents of that memorable battle. They 
are familiar to you all ; and what there was of 
heroism displayed there, what of failure, or 
what of mischance, needs not to be again re- 
cited. Fought with a stubbornness beyond pre- 
cedent in the earlier part of the war, it ever rises 
up again in memory, from the very ashes of 
sorrow, a burning light, fierce with incitement, 
amid the darkness of that time. It was at the 
culmination of that desperate encounter, when 
the thick ranks of the enemy, driven back again 
and again and repulsed in all their attempts to 
break the Union lines, were gathering for one 
more onset, in hope to recover vantage ground, 
that General Lyon stood forth in person to di- 
rect, and, if possible, anticipate their charge. 
He had been twice wounded already, but he 
paid no heed to his wounds. His horse had 
been killed, but he mounted another. Remon- 
strated with for such exposure, he replied, "I 
am but doing my duty. ' ' It was at this moment, 
when ordering the advance, that an orphaned 
Iowa regiment claimed his attention, saying, 
"Who will lead us. General?" He responded 
with rapid enthusiasm, " Forward, brave men, 
I will lead you," and, with his blue eye kindled 
to a blaze of light, and his manly form erect with 
confidence, he suited the action to the word and 
rode down to his death fearlessly and well. A 
sharp, swift pain, a sudden shock, and he fell 
insensible to the earth. He was hastily cared 
for; yet human aid could avail nothing there. 
His head supported by his orderly, the gurgling 
flow from his wound arrested by a change of 
position, one moment of consciousness vouch- 
safed to him, in which his opening eyes realized 
the scenes around him, then, with a radiant 
look and the words "Lehman, I am going up," 
he passed to the spirit land to render an ac- 
count to his God of deeds done in the body. 
From amid the resounding tumultuous strife his 
soul went forth iiito the stilled silence beyond. 
From the narrow precincts of human discord 
he mingled abruptly with the infinities and eter- 
nities of time. From the field of blood and the 



torn wreck of battle he was translated into the 
efiFulgencies where dwell cherubim and sera- 
phim. Oh, hovvf lustrous was that release ! 

It has been said by those who were near to 
his trust, that in the days preceding his death, 
the shadow of approaching dissolution fell upon 
his heart — that he was visited by one of those 
mysterious whispers of Providence that so 
often connect sensibly with the grave those 
standing on its brink; and that in the night 
preceding the battle, as he lay upon the open 
field, his memory, counting its beads, as it were, 
of childhood's home and a mother's image and 
early vanished hopes, voiced a low chant of by- 
gone time that hushed him into peafceful slum- 
ber. If this were so, it is yet certain that no 
foreboding affected his faith in the issue of the 
approaching conflict. To his aid-de-camp he 
declared it impossible that his men should be 
whipped. To himself there might came the 
summons, but defeat to his army was not within 
the range of his vision; and thus upborne by 
the loftiest sense of duty, serenely trusting his 
own life to the care of his Maker, devoting 
himself with ardor to the stern issues of that 
battlefield, and recking not of injuries or ex- 
posure or death, he will remain forever in his- 
tory outlined as the heroic figure in the fore- 
ground of that great panorama of battle and of 
progress which shall portray our national deliv- 
erance from treason and rebellion. 

The battle at Wilson' s creek was in one sense 
a drawn battle, in so far at least as each of the 
contending armies had repulsed the attack made 
upon its lines, and yet the Union^troops at the 
close of the engagement held the ground from 
which they had driven the enemy in the morning. 
Evident signs, moreover, betokened that con- 
sternation was beginning to pervade the rebel 
ranks. Thewithdrawal offerees from the front, 
the burning of a supply train far away to the 
left, and the destruction of baggage wagons and 
equipage in the immediate presence of our ad- 
vance, told of trepidation ready to dissolve into 
retreat. Indeed, General McCuUough' subse- 
quently, in a publication made at Richmond to 
defend the inaction of his army and its failure 
to take the aggressive, declared and proved that 
he was forced to retire from the field because of 
want of ammunition. The testimony of rebel 
officers, taken later in the war, was also to the 



8 



eflPect that long before the last shot was fired 
the roads to their rear were filled with dismayed 
fugitives, who spread before them as they went 
reports of a great disaster to their arms. It 
may be affirmed, therefore, with confidence that 
had General Lyon lived, he who knew so well 
the advantage of prestige in war as to hazard 
in its behalf the chances of attack and a divis- 
ion of his forces, would have held with unquail- 
ing, resolute, indomitable tenacity to that field 
of battle, and by his mere presence converted 
it into a brilliant triumph for the Union cause. 
His own troops had suffered severely but wei-e 
still held well in hand, and while even retreat 
could not dismay them an advance would have 
inspired irresistible enthusiasm and added an- 
other to the many instances of victory wrung 
from the confusion of conflict by the intuitive 
fortitude of an admirable leader. 

I have thus undertaken hastily and imper- 
fectly to set before you a sketch of the life and 
death of Nathaniel Lyon. And what is there 
after all in his brief career, crowned with so 
large an apotheosis, that strikes us most with 
reverence ? Surely, it is not the aggregate re- 
sult of his military achievements, for taken at 
their highest and credited with all their conse- 
quents, still they are as nothing in the scale 
when compared with the services rendered by 
many of the great captains who have since led 
our soldiers to victory. Nor is it alone the fact 
of his tragic death, in the foreground of so much 
of sacrifice by hundreds who have tendered 
their lives with equal devotion to the country, 
that makes us separate his name from that of 
all others in the tribute of this solemn occasion. 
Assuredly, there is a deeper meaning in the 
eloquent voice of his fame, and a profounder 
affiliation between his nature and that of those 
who thus hold him endeared, than any which 
comes of martial glory. 

What that is and how it is, it behooves us 
much to consider, if we would truly know and 
esteem aright one who will confront future 
generations with his image. 

Comparative anatomists tell us that the science 
they ttach has arrived at such exactitude that 
in exhuming fossils from the earth and devel- 
oping the outlines of huge animals that have 
passed away forever, oftentime the discovery of 
a f&w vertebra; or joints or articulations will 



suffice to determine the bony structure of the 
entire frame. Thus they are enabled to recon- 
struct mammoth or mastodon until they stand 
forth whole as when they trod first the green- 
sward of primeval earth. It must be some such 
science that presides over the judgments of the 
people, wjiea, from the disjointed passages of 
a broken and buried life, they erect that visible 
presence and fashion of the soul which becomes 
to them an exalted heroism. And preeminently 
has this been so in the relation sustained to Gen- 
eral Nathaniel Lyon by the patriotism of this 
State. The tie of sympathy, which has thus 
strengthened with each year and day since he 
died, was one whose source many did not recog- 
nize at that hour of a fresh mourning for his 
loss, one that was perhaps overshadowed in the 
display of the towering energies of his active 
command, and yet it penetrated every tone of 
his voice, it was the constant illustration of 
his conduct, it animated him amid difficulties, 
and gave hope, decision, and inflexibility to his 
purpose from first to last — I refer to the deep 
absorbing conviction which possessed his whole 
being, that this was a war waged in behalf of 
freedom for all men, and that however circum- 
scribed then as to methods of defense and loy- 
alty, it could have no other termination than to 
proclaim " liberty throughout all the laud and 
to all the inhaljitants thereof." 

It was no secret, from the outset of liis career 
in arms, that he was a radical abolitionist, who 
held the grave words of the Declaration of 
Independence to be something more than glit- 
tering generalities, and who believed that the 
Constitution of the United States, whicli guar- 
antied to the citizens of each State the rights 
of citizens in the several States, was limited by 
no abridgments of color, and should be en- 
forced regardless of sectional lines. The Army 
of the United States, fostered under pro-slavery 
•influence and patronage, was not the place 
where such opinions were calculated to win re- 
spect or promotion, and j'et he never swerved 
from the faith or scrupled to avow it. I have 
already alluded to the fact that during the dis- 
turbances attendant upou the immigration to 
Kansas he was ordered back from Califor- 
nia and remained stationed for a long time 
at Fort Riley and other points in that Terri- 
tory. While there his ardent temperament 



and clear recognition of the principle involved 
enlisted his sympathies deeply in behalf of 
those who were so fiiithfully contending for 
freedom. 

A private diary kept by him during that pe- 
riod of his life, a copy of which has been kindly 
furnished to me by a friend, evinces in every 
page the earnestness and boldness of his repro- 
bation of the attempt then making by the Ad- 
ministration to dragoon a resisting people into 
acceptance of slavery. It also evinced in many 
of its entries how early he had foreseen the ne- 
cessity of the extinction of slavery, in order that 
the perpetuity of our Union might be possible. 
And still later, when the conflict engendered in 
Kansas had assumed a national bearing and 
absorbed all other issues, when broad lines of 
sectionalism were beginning to appear, and par- 
ties and churches and socialisms were drifting 
into that inevitable conflict whose hour had 
come, he stood not by, an idle spectator of the 
great events which were gathering, but seized 
his pen, and sought to wield an influence for 
the right through the columns of the public 
press. A series of papers published by him at 
the time, in which he discussed the rights of 
labor, the doctrine of popular sovereignty, the 
morals of slavery, the secret of disunion, the 
grievances of the South, and tlie crime of re- 
bellion, will be found even yet to possess much 
of interest. Though evidently the work of an 
unpracticed writer, they are distended by strong 
ribs ofthought, and jointed and sinewed through- 
out with the very logic of freedom. Subse- 
quently, in the presidential canvass of 1860, 
he contributed still more important aid to the 
triumph of the Republican cause, believing that 
in its success was to be found the only safety of 
the nation, from anarchy on the one hand, or 
from a universal slave despotism on the other. 
Addressing those who, four years before, in the 
name of Americanism, had defeated the party 
of free soil, he concluded one of his appeals in 
these words : "You we ask to unite with us t@ 
strengthen those hands which we are confident 
are soon to become invested with this office of 
our national elevation and redemption from its 
present humiliation and disgrace before the en- 
lightened world. You we invite to the ways of 
pleasantness and peace, along which, with the 
cause of humanity, we intend to bear Abraham I 



Lincoln amid the chorus of our emancipated 
nation." 

Prophetic words ! How truly did they disclose 
that which was to come after, and how clear was 
the ray thus let in upon the depths of his own 
meditation! It will not be supposed that from 
ftigitive contributions to the public press, or 
hastily written letters to distant correspondents, 
the inner faith of any heroic soul will be gleaned 
with certainty. Men of such type rarely speak 
out their whole thought, unless demanded by 
necessity, because they revere it too nixach to 
thrust it forth where no sympathy awaits. But 
in the glancing light of expression here and there 
the true lineaments will oftentimes start forth 
with strange distinctness, and the half sup- 
pressed utterance becomes thus the very em- 
phasis of a life. And so it was with the la- 
mented Lyon. Reserved in his customary ad- 
dress ; writing principally to influence others, 
and from the stand-point of their reason, not 
his own, it was only when the fires of his noble 
nature shot forth, in despite of a self-imposed 
control, that men recognized the intensity of his 
convictions and the depth of his faith. In real 
life he was different. There his manner of daily 
intercourse, his habits of conversation, his or- 
dinary bearings, were far more responsive to 
his feelings, and left an impression upon all of 
great earnestness combined with great intre- 
pidity. It was this frankness of demeanor, this 
clear reading of the character of others, and 
equally clear rendering into action of his own, 
that so early won for him the implicit confidence 
of the loyal population of St. Louis when in- 
trusted with the arsenal at that point. Seeing 
more plainly than any other saw the work to 
be done, he was at no loss to recognize who could 
be relied on to aid that work, and resting his 
analysis upon the principles at issue, he made 
no mistakes in persons or parties. 

Thus it was that, in responding to the cheers 
of a German regiment, which had just received 
its arms, and was returning to the city — one of 
the many that rallied to the flag in that brief 
hour of imminent danger — he spoke in terms 
touched with pathos of his own feeling at wit- 
nessing the alacrity with which those foreign 
to the soil rushed forward to defend the nation 
while its own sons leveled the parricidal hand. 
He knew that it was no question of party or pa- 



10 



tronage with them, but one of pure principle, i 
and as such he could not but honor theni the I 
more for their devotion, and took occasion then i 
and there to declare that in his own belief " the [ 
safety of Missouri would be recognized in the j 
future, under the Providence of God, to have • 
l)een assured by the love of liberty inborn in ' 
the German people." \ 

Educated in the formalism ofa military school, \ 
it was to have been anticipated that General ; 
Lyon would be most punctilious in the dis- | 
charge of duty. But with him the regard for | 
it was something more than punctillio ; it was j 
a morbid tenacity of its strictest requirements 
that at times gave an appearance of harshness 
to his character. He was resolute to do all that j 
was required, and no personal trouble or sac- i 
rifice ever induced him to practice evasion or i 
permit neglect. Thus it is related that on one i 
occasion he was stationed at a frontier post, and 
for a period of four months was the only commis- i 
sioned officer present with the garrison. Upon ' 
him, therefore, devolved the duties of comman- 
dant, post adjutant, company commander, and 
officer of the day; and yet during those four 
months he never failed to visit the guard, in the 
latter capacity, twice during each night, once 
at nine o'clock and again after midnight. I | 
doubt if the same can be said of any officer in j 
tlio American Army. Those who were placed i 
under his command were at first inclined to ! 
construe his discipline as severity, but a very 
short experience invariably sufficed to change ! 
such opinion when it was found that he was ' 
only relentless toward the unfaithful. This was 
.shown in the attachment and trust with which |l 
lie was regarded by the men of his own com- 
pany during the years of his service as a junior 
officer, a trust which was often manifested by 
making him the depositary of sums of money 
siggregating large amounts, for which therewas 
no other receipt than his honor. Abstemious- 
ness in diet, a scrupulous regard for health, 
neatness of personal attire, and a modest car- 
riage completed the symmetry of this model of 
a perfect soldier. 

General Lyon was characterized mentally by 
a rapid intuitive reasoning rather than the slower 
elaboration of logical forms. He seemed to 
arrive at convictions by a forecast rather than 
Ijy argumentation, and there was nothing of 



which he was so intolerant as a sophism or a 
technicality. Strongly objective and reliant 
upon his own integrity of purpose, given to wide 
generalizationsof thought, and adorned by those 
frugal virtues, truth, chastity, and temperance, 
he won upon our faith rather by assurance of 
what was within than by outward iteration. He 
was one of Plutarch's men whom simplicity and 
directness environed like an aureole. His de- 
votion to that service in which all of his life was 
so freely rendered, and to which all of worldly 
estate was so grandly bequeathed, was a spon- 
taneous offering, not a cold calculation. The 
spirit which upbore him was not that of the pro- 
fessional soldier, indifferent to sacrifice, aiming 
only at victory; not that of the strategic leader 
of armies, eager for advantage in the game of 
war; not that of the commander, knowing no 
duty but obedience, professing all his creed in 
the term loyalty ; but it was a spirit that found 
its true inspiration in the cause which was per- 
iled on the issue, and recognized that cause in 
all its humanities and liberal promise as the 
one hope of future generations. 

But I may not linger as I would wish upon 
this grateful theme — the lineaments of a char- 
acter so strong, brave, and upright. His man- 
ner of death was itself a pronounced obituary. 
His most moving funeral rites were those of the 
battle-field. Yet, there was not wanting other 
and larger expression. The thanks of the nation 
were rendered in resolutions adopted by the 
Senate and House of Representatives, declaring 
that Congress "deemed it meet and proper to 
enter upon its records a recognition of the emi- 
nent and patriotic services of the late Brigadier 
General Nathaniel Lyon. The count^- to whose 
service he devoted his life will guard and pre- 
serve his fame as a part of its gloiy. " ' And the 
President was I'equested to cause the same to be 
read at the head of every regiment in the United 
States. The response of the people, too. when 
an opportunity presented, was a still more em- 
phatic demonstration. His body, hastily buried 
near the field of battle, was exhumed by his 
relatives, under a flag of truce, for transporta- 
tion to his early home on the Atlantic shore. 
But what was designed as an unostentatious 
transfer could not go forward without calling 
forth the most signal manifestations of grief 
throughout the length and breadth of tiio land. 



11 



In all places where his remains lay in state, 
multitudes thronged to pay their last tribute to 
his memory. Along the lines of railway citi- 
zen soldiers gathered to droop the flag over his 
funeral car. St. Louis, amid its loyal popula- 
tion, was one wide house of mourning. The 
great cities of Cincinnati, Pittsburg, Philadel- 
phia, and New York vied with each other in 
their testimonials, bewailing his loss as a na- 
tional calamity. It was a spontaneous out- 
flowing of popular sympathy and sadness, that 
in all this long martyrology of our best and 
bravest, has only had its parallel in the gloom 
attendant upon the return to its sepulchral 
home of the cofiined form of Abraham Lin- 
coln. These two, first and last of the great 
sacrifices, enshrined in the same supreme sym- 
pathy, how clearly they made plain in death 
not less than in life, that this Union is one and 
inseparable. 

Borne along to the town of Eastford, in the 
State of Connecticut, the ceremonial of his in- 
terment bespoke how feelingly New England 
regarded the fall of her second Warren. The 
church. bells sounded plaintive in the hushed 
air; the sobbing music scarce knew its notes; 
the heart of the vast concourse was touched 
with infinite pity as his form was lowered to its 
rest beneath the weeping willows, and the re- 
sponse, earth to earth, pronounced above his 
grave. He lay with his fathers near by the Still 
river. His last long march was done. There 
have been many marches famous in this war. 
There was the march to Richmond that cast 
such a swath of dead men by the wayside. 
There was that other march, which will live 
forever in chronicle and song, the March to the 
Sea. But that burial march from the West to 
East was more typical than any of these, in 
that it forecast the moral element of our great 
national struggle — a struggle which shall have 
its ending only when humanity shall put on the 
robes of equality; when color and race shall 
disappear in the lines of virtue ; when John 
Brown shall be accredited as patriot and states- 
man, and Liberty shall claim the continent as 
her own. 

Four years have gone by since the compass 
of his life was closed — four years horrid with 
the realities of carnage, and wicked with the 
dream of disunion ; and now our nation, com- 



pacted by conflict, confronts the world with a 
power and prestige second to none. The fields 
have smiled once more with their yellow har- 
vest gleaned in peace ; the stir of industry re- 
sounds on every side ; commerce has reentered 
upon its rights. The conquests of force have 
been made permanent by absolute surrender ; 
and armies disbanded ; navies laid up in ordi- 
nary; the equipage of war thrown off, show 
how confident the Government feels in its power 
to make good the fruits of that submission. 
And the word has gone forth likewise, that 
alone redeemed our conflict from the barbarism 
of a strife for simple mastery : that word — first 
spoken in a whisper, afterward shouted with 
acclaim — first a military edict, now a constitu- 
tional guarantee — that beneath our flag through- 
out all the land no human being shall ever again 
be held as a slave. The last days of the year 
just closed were made glorious by proclama- 
tion of that event ; and even now your national 
Congress keeps watch and ward to see the an- 
nouncement fulfilled in all its breadth and 
wealth of meaning. 

We have been rendering homage to-day to 
the life and services of one who gave his all to 
the mere hope of such a consummation ; whose 
lot was cast amid the more violent phases of 
that struggle, but whose faith went far out into 
the future, even to this day of rejoicing over 
an " emancipated nation." That faith of his 
should be a watch-word to us forcvermore, 
whereby aiiiid the discouragements of the pres- 
ent we may repose upon the confidences of the 
future. All of progress is not yet attained for 
our people, all of freedom not yet won for this 
nation ; and because the after part of that prog- 
ress is remitted to the methods of peace and 
not of war, and because it remains siill to verify 
that it be liberty, and not hypocrisy which is 
set up, we may not abandon tlie issue of these 
times without proving recreant to our trust. 
Years of toil and trial may have to be con- 
fronted before the end shall draw nigh. The 
terra of a generation of men is the historic pe- 
riod of the accomplishment of social revolutions 
such as that which now environs us, and shall 
we abandon then the guardianship that is de- 
volved on us out of this chaos of old forms, and 
give to those who would have made ruin in the 
name of slavery and disunion, the ordering of 



12 




iillililillliillililllillliil I 

012 192 904 1 



any essential guarantees of peace and freedom ? 
That is a grave and pregnant inquiry, going to the 
soul of all our late armed controversy, and emi- 
nently fit to be pondered in this memorial hour. 

Far be it from my purpose to intrude upon 
3-oiir notice the jarring creeds that divide fac- 
tions in the time set apart for tributes to the 
dead. But this is not partyism — it is patriot- 
ism, and it would be no honor to him -whose 
name we are preimringto inscribe in those lists 
that are to teach our children by illustrious 
example, were any affectation to preclude us 
from the thought of that larger duty developed 
in the relations that victory has imposed. He 
is joined now to the Everlasting. He sees the 
light of a celestial sphere, and his being is at- 
tuned to harmonies not of earth. But who can 
doubt, if he were here in the flesh, that he 



would counsel us by that hope he held so sacred, 
never to imperil the achievements of our war 
of liberation by making it possible for the van- 
quished to falsify those decrees which in the 
name of freedom have gone forth to every 
kindred and nation and tongue ? 

And in conclusion, I would say to you who 
have purposed to commemorate the virtue and 
valor of Nathaniel Lyon, go forward zealously 
with your noble tribute ; carve the laurel around 
-.is brow ; build high the shaft that shall bear 
witness to his fame ; quawy the purest marbles 
whereon to inscribe his services, and dedicate 
your work M^hen done to the Centuries, for be 
sure that the memory of one so pure in heart, 
so steadfast in faith, so true in every action to 
the simple grandeur of his heroic mold, is what 
the world will not willingly let die. 



L9 6r 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



012 192 904 1 






